Study Calls for Greater Value on Patient Self-Assessments in Diagnostics

Researchers advocate for a shift from 'doctor knows best' to a more collaborative approach, highlighting the importance of patient insights in improving diagnostic accuracy and patient satisfaction.

Research led by the University of Cambridge and King's College London found that clinicians often undervalue patient self-assessments in diagnostic decisions, ranking them as the least important.
The study used neuropsychiatric lupus, a challenging-to-diagnose autoimmune disease, as a case study to examine the value given by clinicians to different types of diagnostic evidence.
Fewer than 4% of clinicians ranked patient self-assessments in the top three types of diagnostic evidence, while clinicians ranked their own assessments as the most important.
Almost half of the patients reported never or rarely being asked for their self-assessments of their disease, highlighting a significant gap in patient-clinician communication.
The study calls for a shift from the 'doctor knows best' attitude to a more collaborative approach, valuing patients' lived experiences and insights for better diagnostic accuracy and patient satisfaction.